Staffordshire Police

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Wildlife crime and rural matters

Staffordshire Police have 11 Wildlife Crime Officers stationed throughout the county who have all attended the National Wildlife Crime Officers Course. Between them they have many years of experience dealing with Wildlife and Countryside Matters. 

Wildlife crime is not just restricted to rural areas and can take many forms. The old fashioned image of poachers taking a rabbit or a bird for the pot is a long way from the modern day reality. Today’s wildlife crime is centred around a multi million pound trade in endangered species from all over the world. Large scale developments which have an adverse effect on flora and fauna, as well as cruelty offences such as badger baiting and dog fighting are all common place.

European Law and Domestic law exists to protect wildlife in all its forms and Staffordshire Police do enforce the law, sometimes taking primacy in an investigation, sometimes assisting Statuary bodies such as Natural England (Opens in new window), the Environment Agency (Opens in new window), Local Authorities and DEFRA (Opens in new window) and also the charities such as the RSPCA (Opens in new window) and RSPB (Opens in new window).  The primary legislation is as follows;

  • Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981
  • Wild Mammals (Protection) Act 1996
  • The Countryside & Rights of Way Act 2000
  • Natural Environment & Rural Communities Act 2006
  • Animal Welfare Act 2006
  • The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) (International)
  • The Control of Trade in Endangered Species (Enforcement) Regulations 1997  (European)

If you wish to contact a Wildlife Crime Officer for advice or to report an incident please ring 101.

If you have information which may assist us in the prevention or detection of Wildlife Crime and you do not wish to reveal your identity you can contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

You can contact us by e-mail on wildlife.crime@staffordshire.pnn.police.uk (Opens in new window)

Please do not report ongoing incidents via email. We aim to reply within two working days.

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How to contact us

For non-emergency calls and general enquiries contact us on:

101

In an emergency, where life is in danger or a crime is in progress, call 999.

Crimestoppers

Call anonymously with information about crime

0800 555 111

More about Crimestoppers

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